Marines work quickly to wrap up deployment

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 04:54 PM.

The CH-53s and the Harriers returned to the ships Tuesday to help fly supplies back to the bases.

The 24th MEU’s offloading process began Saturday with the Harriers making their initial Marine drop off at Cherry Point and continued until the late afternoon on Tuesday.

“The actual offload itself has been very time intensive,” Sell said. “It takes a huge amount of effort on everyone’s part to actually coordinate.”

Sell said the Marines purposely spread out the offloading over the course of a few days so as not to overload the beach with personnel, vehicles and cargo. The 24th MEU also asked other Camp Lejeune units for help with their offloading procedures to get the process done faster and with as few MEU Marines as possible.

“We’ve resourced a couple of other units here on base such as Combat Logistics Regiment 27,” Sell said. “They will assist here in our offloads to have a quicker turnaround and get our Marines home to their families.”

Once the Marines finished offloading their equipment, the three IWO ARG ships left for Norfolk, Va., where the remaining 2,000 sailors still on board are based.

The 24th MEU left in March and served throughout the U.S. European, Central and Africa commands, participated in a number of exercises, theater security cooperation engagements and remained on alert for a total of approximately 150 days to respond to a number of crises, according to information from MEU officials.

While the majority of the Marines deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit have already returned home from their nine-month deployment, the logistics Marines in charge of getting people, cargo and vehicles off the ships were still working Tuesday.

The approximately 2,300 Camp Lejeune Marines deployed with the 24th MEU have arrived home in waves over the past few days, and while most ran into joyous family members’ arms, others have remained hard at work, making sure every piece of cargo makes it safely from the ship to the shore.

Staff Sgt. Heath Sell, the embark chief for the 24th MEU, oversaw the offloading of more than 400 vehicles — tanks, humvees and amphibious assault vehicles —that were spread across the USS Iwo Jima, USS Gunston Hall and USS New York with the 24th MEU. In addition to the vehicles were thousands of pounds of cargo, gear and food.

“This is one of the key aspects of a Marine Expeditionary Unit,” Sell said on the shores of Onslow Beach Tuesday. “It’s one of the most unique aspects that the Navy and Marine Corps team have: the ship to shore movement.”

While the smaller ships — the USS Gunston Hall and USS New York—were docked in Morehead City and offloaded within a couple of days, the much larger USS Iwo Jima floated approximately five miles off the coast of Onslow Beach Tuesday, as Marine hovercrafts and helicopters continued to move vehicles, personnel and cargo off the ship.

On its 9-month deployment to the Mediterranean, the MEU had four tanks, 15 amphibious assault vehicles and 101 trucks and humvees on the USS Iwo Jima, with a total of about 400 vehicles spread across the three ships. That doesn’t include the approximately 2,000 sailors of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group who were also on the ships with the Marines, towing their own equipment.

The Marines also had an aviation element dispersed across the three ships, consisting of 12 MV-22B Ospreys, six AV-8B Harriers, four CH-53E Super Stallions, four AH-1W Cobras and three UH-1N Hueys, all of which flew off to their respective homes at Marine Corps air stations New River and Cherry Point to drop off Marines Sunday and Monday.

The CH-53s and the Harriers returned to the ships Tuesday to help fly supplies back to the bases.

The 24th MEU’s offloading process began Saturday with the Harriers making their initial Marine drop off at Cherry Point and continued until the late afternoon on Tuesday.

“The actual offload itself has been very time intensive,” Sell said. “It takes a huge amount of effort on everyone’s part to actually coordinate.”

Sell said the Marines purposely spread out the offloading over the course of a few days so as not to overload the beach with personnel, vehicles and cargo. The 24th MEU also asked other Camp Lejeune units for help with their offloading procedures to get the process done faster and with as few MEU Marines as possible.

“We’ve resourced a couple of other units here on base such as Combat Logistics Regiment 27,” Sell said. “They will assist here in our offloads to have a quicker turnaround and get our Marines home to their families.”

Once the Marines finished offloading their equipment, the three IWO ARG ships left for Norfolk, Va., where the remaining 2,000 sailors still on board are based.

The 24th MEU left in March and served throughout the U.S. European, Central and Africa commands, participated in a number of exercises, theater security cooperation engagements and remained on alert for a total of approximately 150 days to respond to a number of crises, according to information from MEU officials.

The 26th MEU is the next East Coast MEU scheduled to take the place of the 24th MEU in the U.S. European, Central and Africa Commands. They are currently conducting predeployment training aboard the USS Wasp and will deploy sometime in the spring.

Contact Daily News Military Reporter Amanda Wilcox at 910-219-8453 or amanda.wilcox@jdnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AWilcox21.